TempAllyConstruction staffing has its own rhythm compared to other temporary sectors. Workers move between sites, not just clients, and each site can have its own induction requirements on top of the standard compliance you'd expect. If you've ever had a worker turned away at a gate because their CSCS card had expired the week before, you'll know exactly why this needs its own process.
What CSCS card types do construction staff need?
The CSCS scheme covers a whole range of card types, from Labourer through to Gold cards for supervisors and specific trade cards for skilled roles. Most sites won't let a worker through the gate without the right card for the work they're doing, so matching card type to role is as important as checking the card hasn't expired.
Cards typically run for three to five years depending on the type, and renewal usually needs a valid health and safety test alongside the relevant qualification. Because you're often placing the same worker across different sites and clients, one lapsed card can knock them out of every booking at once, not just one.
Site inductions are their own layer
Beyond the CSCS card, most construction sites run their own induction, covering site-specific hazards, emergency procedures and local rules. A worker might be fully compliant everywhere else and still get turned away because they haven't completed that site's induction yet.
This is where things get genuinely tricky for agencies working across multiple sites. You need to track not just whether a worker is compliant in general, but whether they're compliant for this specific site, on this specific day. A spreadsheet really struggles to hold that kind of detail cleanly.
Health and safety records matter more here than most sectors
Construction carries more inherent risk than a lot of temporary sectors, which means the paperwork around training, PPE certification and health surveillance tends to matter more too. Things like working at height training, asbestos awareness, or manual handling certificates often have their own expiry dates separate from the CSCS card itself.
Agencies that do this well keep every certificate, its expiry date, and which sites it's relevant for, on the worker's profile rather than in a folder somewhere. When a shift comes in, you want to know instantly whether every certificate that site requires is current, not find out after the worker's already on their way.
CSCS isn't the only card that matters
Depending on the role, a worker might also need a CPCS or NPORS card for plant operation, an asbestos awareness certificate, or a specific ticket for working at height, confined spaces or scaffolding. Each of these tends to come from a different awarding body, with its own renewal cycle and its own paperwork, which is exactly why relying on a single "compliance" column in a spreadsheet falls apart quickly in construction.
The agencies that manage this well don't try to remember which tickets matter for which role from memory. They build a role-to-requirement mapping once, covering everything from the CSCS card itself down to site-specific tickets, and apply it consistently every time they place someone into that type of role. It sounds like more setup up front, but it's far less error-prone than reconstructing the requirements every time a booking comes in.
What good looks like day to day
The agencies who handle construction staffing smoothly have a few things in common. They track compliance per worker and per site, not just per worker. They get automatic reminders well before a CSCS card or certificate expires, with enough runway to book a renewal rather than scramble. And they can see at a glance, before confirming a booking, whether a worker is actually cleared for that specific site.
TempAlly lets you build compliance rules that reflect this, tracking documents and certifications against both the worker and the site they're heading to, so a booking simply can't be confirmed until everything checks out. It takes the guesswork, and the gate-side surprises, out of the process.
If construction staffing is a big part of your book and you'd like to see how it works, book a demo and we'll show you around.
